Abstract: Employee #1 and a coworker were putting in water and sewer lines for a large housing project. They were using a John Deere 710 backhoe to set the base of a manhole into an excavation. A 10 in. chain and two bolts were connected into the side of the manhole base. Employee #1 and the coworker were using a 20 ft chain wrapped around the picking hook on the backhoe with both free ends hooked into the 2 pick chains. They had to adjust the manhole hook and chain several times to level the manhole. On the last try, they lost contact with each other. The coworker, who was operating the backhoe, moved forward to get more leverage. He did not know that Employee #1 was still setting the chain. When the coworker picked up the manhole base, he caught Employee #1's finger between the manhole hook and chain, cutting off the left little finger at the first knuckle.